Posted
by
timothy
on Sunday May 19, 2013 @06:05PM
from the siri-what's-the-best-way-to-launch-a-nuclear-missile? dept.

puddingebola writes with this excerpt from a Bloomberg report: "The Pentagon cleared Apple Inc. (AAPL) devices for use on its networks, setting the stage for the maker of iPhones and iPads to compete with Samsung Electronics Co. and BlackBerry for military sales. The Defense Department said in a statement [Friday] that it has approved the use of Cupertino, California-based Apple's products running a version of the iOS 6 mobile platform. The decision eventually may spur a three-way fight for a market long dominated by Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry.'" Also, Apple devices are best for uploading viruses to alien craft.

I've long considered this to be the reason why Blackberry has been profitable. This sort of deal is a very juicy plum, and I've always had my doubts about the strength of Blackberry's phones.
Another thing that may have contributed to blackberry's survival is its monopoly on BBM, but soon that will be ending as well.

so bb, goog, and ios are all approved? in the short term, there will be a department of redundant phone platforms department that will waste a lot of money. in the long term, having competitors in the mix will be good for the military and cheaper.

Enterprises could always "side load" (bypass the Apple App Store) their own apps on their own devices.

iOS 6 is most likely specified simply because its the current version. To keep things simple. Want onto the network, then be running the current os version. That and the internal developers needs a min iOS target.

Let me get this straight--you're comparing using iPhones with murder, death, and disease? You must be the biggest Apple-Hater in the world. I mean, I may not be a big fan of iPhones, but I certainly wouldn't compare owning one to having HIV.

You see, this is why we have to tell you when it is intended to be humorous. Because otherwise you go off the deep-end.

Ironically while Apple executives laugh at the president at the suggestion of iphone manufacture in the states, Samsung make their chips in the US. Really its a mystery why Apple is being considered at all they are as anti American as they come. If I was cynical I would suggest its part of the deal to bring back the some imac mini manufacturing to the states...although we have seen very little actual manufacture as yet.

Ironically while Apple executives laugh at the president at the suggestion of iphone manufacture in the states, Samsung make their chips in the US. Really its a mystery why Apple is being considered at all they are as anti American as they come. If I was cynical I would suggest its part of the deal to bring back the some imac mini manufacturing to the states...although we have seen very little actual manufacture as yet.

So what you're saying is that both have their CPU manufactured in the USA, both have the physical device manufactured in the east, and only one has tens of thousands employed in the states designing the thing. Notably that same one has already begun moving production of various of their product lines to the US too.

This represents a serious change in Apple's direction. They have avoided the business/enterprise market because they haven't been interested in competing in other, existing markets and certainly never wanted to be held to the same standards as the likes of Dell. But now the government/military market? This is a long way from trying to tie everything together with iTunes.

This represents a serious change in Apple's direction. They have avoided the business/enterprise market because they haven't been interested in competing in other, existing markets and certainly never wanted to be held to the same standards as the likes of Dell. But now the government/military market? This is a long way from trying to tie everything together with iTunes.

As mentioned before, you could for many years now buy an "Enterprise" developer license, which allows you to make your apps available to any unmodified iOS device without going through Apple's app store. (The license requires you to make sure that apps will _only_ be downloaded to devices belonging to that enterprise). So this license is specifically for enterprises who want to develop apps for their employees.

This is a Defense Department announcement, not an Apple one. There's nothing to indicate Apple have done anything, other than sell iPhones and enterprise licenses to all comers.

Apple might have done more, but there's no indication here. And there's certainly not any sign of a serious change of direction. Those enterprise licenses for iOS have been around for years, allowing enterprise customers to install their own apps and have control of their iPhones, without going anywhere near the iTunes App Store.

So now, they will spend millions and more of tax payer money, to create a special store with iOS applications,
presumably a special store with Android applications, while still maintaining all of their Blackberry infrastructure.

Um, what? A Enterprise license [apple.com] will cover this scenario and costs $299/yr. It has been place for years.

This adds many levels of complexity for the infrastructure,and the hiring and training of support personalfor all sorts of devices. Why? What benefit does Pentagon bet from maintaing 3 different platformsinstead of one?

Short term its true, long term its simply stupid. Dependence on a single vendor...whoever they are is simply bad for any business. It keeps the vendors honest (massive cost saving), and better supply chain(another cost saving).

Now whether a closed ecosystem like apple should be considered at all is a different matter.

The Pentagon's had a love/hate relationship with Apple for decades. When I first got there in 1991, one of the politically appointed under-secretaries was a big Mac fan, so that entire directorate, several hundred employees, was outfitted with Macs and we integrated it with the network all while trying to come up to speed on Apple products. When his term was up, the next guy came in and wanted Windows machines.. so out with the Macs, in with the Gateways. It should be easier this time around.

Because they're quite intelligently, avoiding getting stuck in a dead end. Wonder why businesses end up in the modern age with websites that only work on IE6? That's because they apply your thinking. The DoD are doing exactly the right thing here –making sure that all platforms that will reasonably continue into the future are supported correctly, so that they don't have all their eggs in one basket.

Or, they will do what enterprises across the world are doing - open up a secure way for Android (via Touchdown, but some devices do whole-device encryption to a standard that counts now) and iOS to collect mail / contacts / calendars through MDM profiles, and when everyone switches away from Blackberry, shut down their BES environment and count the savings.

We did that last year in this here Fortune-20 company. The users love it, because they get to use a device they actually like, which they get to go out

I was at a conference a few years back (LandWarNet, before it was split into pieces) and the SecDef was making the keynote via VTC and was foaming at the mouth for his new iphone 4. This is all top-driven.

Two-Star General Whoever doesnt want a DoD fork of android, he wants an iphone or regular android issued by his command that he can use for official and personal use (shhh!) without having to spend $100/mo on a personal mobile phone contract.

I have LTCs wasting money on devices they dont want to use (apparently the Slate tablet isnt so hot anymore if you need ethernet and a non-bluetooth keyboard) and pestering me for devices they will have no need for (iphone, android offer few advantages over a BB7 device in regards to phone calls and email) even if they could have them or the limitations didnt make them unappealing.

our tax dollars at work, we are financing people's workplace trendiness. some will say 'so what its an iphone, replacing an existing blackberry device and contract', but its much more. Part of the DISA configuration requirements is a management server. Thats enterprise hardware and a service agreement. There will also be funded training for use of the management server. Not to mention some poor SOB will gain an additional side-duty.

Part of the DISA configuration requirements is a management server. Thats enterprise hardware and a service agreement. There will also be funded training for use of the management server. Not to mention some poor SOB will gain an additional side-duty.

So you dump the BES and use an MDM server that talks to Android, iOS, and Blackberry. There are plenty to choose from.

the point is that money is being wasted to cater to "important" people's fashion sense.Macs are de-facto no longer authorized for Army use (no current security baseline, even for a "standalone" system) and *nix is relegeted to the server room. Windows is the only game in town for workstations, yet few have a vocal issue with that (usually just Mac people). So why is there a push for three (BB, Android, and Apple) completely different products and the costs imposed by supporting them as opposed to a single s

Blackberry is on the way down. They may recover, or they may completely implode and go the way of Nortel. Would you rather have support for other certified devices in place before they implode, or have a notoriously inefficient and prone to corruption entity like the Department of Defense rush to slap together something afterward?

It's smart to hedge bets sometimes.

(This post contains forward looking statements that may not come to pass, regarding the implosion of RIM / BlackBerry)

the point is that money is being wasted to cater to "important" people's fashion sense.

I'm puzzled why you'd put the quotes around "important", and why you attribute all of this to fashion sense. These are important people, and they likely pick their tools and equipment for other reasons than fashion sense.

Had a LTC last week whining about another Battalion's commander having the camera enabled on their blackberry while his was disabled. He wanted it, but couldnt provide any mission-related justification

i use quotes around the word "important" because most (not all) people with a rank above Captain are primadonnas that belive they are far more important in the execution of various things than anyone else. Get ten LTCs in a room together and you'll walk out with ten number one priorities of various actual importance in the grand scheme of things. Their rank is what makes something important, they are trained that way from the beginning of their military career, and most dont differentiate between "random so

The Army in the 1970s tried to impose standards for interoperability. They would create standards and require everyone to implement to their specifications on data formats, on exchange formats on languages on APIs.... It created tremendous technologies, like the internet, but it drove their costs through the roof. Ada is a good example there are only a small number of applications which support Ada and many of them are limited to very specific features. The computer industry is much larger today relativ

Some may be wondering how this could be possible when almost all Apple devices have built-in cameras. The military employs a skilled third party to remove them completely instead of just disabling them. Here is some of his work (a Mac with the iSight taken out): http://i40.tinypic.com/2yvs9ki.jpg [tinypic.com] .

Apple is going to find out the hard way that 'fast development/aquisition' means something entirely different to Apple than it does to the military. Apple probably thinks that half a year is a long time, while the military thinks that five/ten years is quite average.

Apple is mistaken if it thinks it's going to play a role above level 'Restricted'. Well, unless it's pilots. But pilots get whatever they want anyway.

Apple is going to find out the hard way that 'fast development/aquisition' means something entirely different to Apple than it does to the military. Apple probably thinks that half a year is a long time, while the military thinks that five/ten years is quite average.

Apple releases a new phone and tablet once a year. That's not fast, and in a market like smartphones, it's pretty damn slow when the likes of Samsung are releasing tons of phones daily. Sure they're not all SGS4s, but damn, Samsung makes hundred